1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, a rule file outputting apparatus, a program, and a method of determining an exclusive relationship between parameters.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, multifunction machines referred to as MFPs (Multifunction Peripherals) having plural functions such as a printer function, a copier function, and a scanner function in a housing are known. In such a MFP, plural application programs such as a printer application, a copier application, and a scanner application are installed on universal versatile operating systems such as UNIX (Registered Trademark). The MFP implements the plural functions by switching the execution processing of these application programs.
However, because the printer application, the copier application, and the scanner application individually perform engine control, memory control, system control, etc., wasteful duplicated processing is caused.
According to Patent Document 1, the processing such as the engine control, the memory control, and the system control individually handled by plural application programs installed in the MFP, are taken out from the application programs in a bundled manner as a common processing part (platform), thereby attaining an improvement in development efficiency of the application programs.
Furthermore, according to Patent Document 2, a combination check table is used to determine the propriety of combining various functions such as a sort selecting function and a tray selecting function shared by plural application programs installed in the MFP.
However, the invention disclosed in Patent Document 1 is intended not to standardize entire internal processing of the application programs, but to standardize processing units that control hardware devices. Therefore, the application programs in the MFP have room for improving the development efficiency.
For example, setting management processing is processing common to the respective application programs in the copier, in which a function setting request from users is received via control software programs of an operations panel, the propriety of combining selected functions is determined, and the determination results are reported to the users in such a way that an input to the operations panel is restricted. However, because the setting management processing is not processing for directly controlling the hardware devices, it is individually implemented by the respective application programs. Therefore, it is possible to standardize the setting management processing.
Furthermore, the invention disclosed in Patent Document 2 determines the propriety of combining the various functions by using the combination check table. However, it becomes difficult to easily maintain the combination check table as the size of the table increases due to the multiple functions of the copier. Accordingly, there are possibilities of increasing the number of steps for adding and upgrading functions and causing improper control for combining the functions.
From the viewpoint of this, it is significant how the setting management processing for the application programs installed in the MFP is efficiently implemented. Note that such a problem is caused not only in the MFP, but also, for example, in a setting management apparatus that controls the combination between settings of plural functions.
Therefore, in Patent Document 3, the present Applicant has proposed a setting management apparatus, a setting management program, and an image forming apparatus capable of efficiently implementing the setting management processing.
Patent Document 1: JP-A-2002-084383
Patent Document 2: JP-B2-3175479
Patent Document 3: JP-A-2006-115482